Configurable declare: Designing customisable flexible process models

Abstract

Declarative languages are becoming more popular for modelling business processes with a high degree of variability. Unlike procedural languages, where the models define what is to be done, a declarative model specifies what behaviour is not allowed, using constraints on process events. In this paper, we study how to support configurability in such a declarative setting. We take Declare as an example of a declarative process modelling language and introduce Configurable Declare. Configurability is achieved by using configuration options for event hiding and constraint omission. We illustrate our approach using a case study, based on process models of ten Dutch municipalities. A Configurable Declare model is constructed supporting the variations within these municipalities. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.